Notes - SeniorNet · Senior Net Warkworth Microsoft Sway Notes 5 SeniorNet Warkworth Microsoft Sway Symposium Notes May 2018 Author Brian Oakes • The centre section of the screen

Senior Net Warkworth Microsoft Sway Notes

1 SeniorNet Warkworth Microsoft Sway Symposium Notes May 2018 Author Brian Oakes

Notes

Office Sway is a presentation program and is part of

the Microsoft Office family of products. Generally

released by Microsoft in August 2015, Sway allows

users who have a Microsoft account to combine text

and media to create a presentable website.



What is Sway

It’s not a song from Frank Sinatra and it’s not a smooch y dance. Sway is a digital storytelling app for work, school and home that makes it quick and easy to create and share interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more. It’s like having your own personal web site

You can add Photos, videos, sounds and of course text, as well as maps to a Sway and then send a link to your presentation which can then be viewed directly from the cloud on any type of device. There is no programme to download. Sway is web based and all you need to make a Sway is a Microsoft account and best of all its free and simple to use Sways are great for telling your family about your Holiday. You describe the places you visited on your trip along with any Photos and videos you have taken. You can even include sound clips as well maps of the area you visited.

What about sending out an interactive Christmas greeting or a special Birthday message to

your Family or Friends. In a Sway you can describe some of your activities throughout the

year and include Photos and videos and even sounds.

You can use Sway to send out a newsletter. Ideal if you are involved with running a club or

Church group. All the details of up and coming events can go into a Sway along with photos

of previous events.

To use Sway all you need is a Microsoft account. You may have already set an account up if

not however it’s a simple process and its free.

To set up an account

• Go to the Microsoft account sign-up page and tap or click Create account.

• In the User name box enter your existing email address, or tap or click Get a new

email address to create an Outlook or Hotmail address.

• Fill out the rest of the form, and then tap or click Create account.



Once you have your account and password you are ready to use Sway.

The Sway App is built directly into windows 10

• In the windows 10 search box type Sway.

From the menu Click on the Sway App

• The Sway log in screen will open

• If the App does not open then Type Swa .com in

your browser address bar.

• At the log in screen type in your email address (this

should be the one you used to set up your Microsoft

account.)

• Press the Get started button

• Enter your Password

• Press Sign in

• The Welcome to Sway screen will open

• You are now ready to make your first Sway.



Making a Sway

You can build a Sway from scratch or try using one of the many templates available.

In the bottom menu is a Tutorial Sway called How to Sway. It is strongly recommended that

you view this presentation which tells you all about the powerful features of Sway.

• Just click on the thumbnail to Start.

Building a Sway from scratch

• Click the Create New button

• A Sway Title card will open in the Story Line mode.

Storyline Storyline

Mode

Title Card Play and Share

Controls

Click to add

cards



• The centre section of the screen is the Storyline where you build your Sway.

• At the top of the Storyline is the Title Card.

• At the bottom of the Title card is a green plus sign. This is where you add further

cards

• At the top left are two tabs where you switch between the Storyline view and the

Design view.

• The Storyline view is where you make your Sway and add Headings, Text, Videos etc.

• The Design View shows a preview of your finished Sway.

• At the Top right is are Play buttons to view you Sway in its finished form and Sharea

Share button.

Cards are used to build your Sway.

There are many types of cards

• Heading 1

• Heading 2

• Text cards

• Image

• Video

• Audio

• Embed

You can group image cards together

to form different display options such

as: -

• Automatic

• Stack

• Comparison

• Slide show

• Grid



There is also a Title Card. This is what you see when you first create a Sway. There is only

one Title card and that’s the first one and is applied by default to a new Sway. The name

that you type in the Title card becomes the name of the Sway.

You can’t delete the Title Card but you can change the name of it as well as the picture.

You don’t actually save a Sway once you have given it a Title that’s it. Any changes that you

make will automatically be saved.

The Title Card has a space on the left for an image (In the first Title card this is named

Background but any others will be named Image).

This can be one of your own images or one

suggested by Sway. Images are suggested

according to the Title you have inserted.

• Click on the Background box and a menu

of suggested images appears to the left.

• Here you can choose to view any of the

suggested options or search your device

or onedrive for an image.

• You can also press the Insert button at

the top right to open this menu.

• When you Click on one of the options,

Sway will display a selection of images it

has found based on your Title. So in the

case of the example above (Trip to Napier.)

Sway will show a range of images depicting

scenes from Napier or the surrounding

area.

Title Card

Napier

Napier Displayed



• The search results

are based on images that

are free to use without

copyright protection. This

is indicated by the checked

Creative Commons Only box. If you untick this box,

you will have more options but may have copyright

issues.

• You can also use the search box to search for an

image.

• You can also use an image from your computer

or device

• To do this Click on the downward facing chevron next to the Suggested button at the

top left under the Sway icon. This will open a menu with a range of options.

• Select My device to go to your computes file system and

Browse to a Photo of your choice.

• In either method Select a picture and drag it to the Background box. Be sure to

choose one with a large pixel size otherwise you will see a pixelated image.

• Your image will be inserted into your Sway.



Preview

• You can preview this image and text by clicking on the

Design Tab at the top left.

• You will see a preview of your Sway. However, you will

only see the finished Sway which will include some

animations when you press the Play button at the top

right, but the Preview will give you a good idea how your

Sway will look.

• .

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

You can Edit the Sway in The Design Window.

• Click on the Text and Click on the Edit button.

• The Text will open in the Edit

mode where you can make any

necessary changes or add

emphasis (Bold) or Accent.

• To return to the Storyline click on the Storyline tab at the

top left of the screen.

Design View

gives a Preview

of your Sway

Return to the Storyline



Adding more content.

To add more content to your presentation, click on the plus sign below any card to open

up the Card menu.

• This menu gives you options to add various suggested cards:- Heading 1, Text, Image

as well as some other options.

• Notice there is no Title card as there is only one and that is used at the Start of your

Sway.

• To select a card, Click on the card button and it will be inserted into your Sway.

• Clicking on the menu tabs opens up more options. Example:- Opening the Text Tab

gives the option of Text as a large heading (Heading 1) or a smaller heading (Heading

2) or just Text alone

Example of 4 cards added to Sway

by clicking + button. Each press adds

another card. They are all grouped

to the Heading 1 card.

All cards grouped

below a Heading 1

card

Card Menu



Note that after the Heading 1 card has been added, each time you add another card

such as Heading 2, text or image, they are all grouped to the Heading 1 card.

By inserting a Heading 1 card you get another group formed.

You use the Heading 1 and 2 cards to make a space between your subjects.

The Heading Cards are similar to the Title Card as they both allow you to add a

background image. A Header Card will divide your Sway into sections -- thus in many

ways, a Heading Card is almost a Title of a Section within the Sway. Use Heading 1 cards

to separate groups.

Adding a Heading 1

card separates the

groups

Heading 1 card

Heading 2 card

Text Card

Image Card

Example showing the Design Preview of 4 types of cards.

• Heading 1, Heading 2, Image and Text cards.



Sways are built up using the different cards. Headings and sub Headings are added as well

as images or videos as required. Text can be typed or copied from a Word document or even

from a website. Continue building your Sway checking using the Design Preview Tab on the

overall look of the Sway.

Adjusting Text size

You can’t adjust Text in the conventional way as you would do in a Word Document.

There are however a few things you can do with Text.

• You can emphasise a Word to make it Bolder to make a statement in your

presentation.

• You can place an accent on your text to differentiate a word.

• Add Bullet points

• Add numbers

• Make the Words bigger by emphasising further to Subtle or Moderate emphasis.

• Highlight the words and press the appropriate button.

Delete a card

You can delete any card by clicking the Trash can in the top right corner of the card

Adjusting Images

You can add a caption to an image card by typing in the caption field on the card.

• There are similar controls available on an image card to Emphasise, Accent and add

bullet points and numbers to the Caption. However, you can’t change its size.

Emphasis to

Make Bold Text

Accent to

Italicise Text

Add bullets or

numbers

Make Text larger by using

Subtle and moderate emphasis

Trash



• You can also adjust the image size to Subtle, Moderate and Intense to make it really

large. This could be interpreted to mean Small, Medium and Large.

Grouping Images.

Images can be grouped together and displayed in a number of different ways.

• Click the Plus sign to open the card menu

• Select the Stack option.

• A group stack card will be added

• Open the Group Type Menu and from the menu at the right choose a

group option from the 7 types. Example the Stack option.

• Whichever you choose you can change it later

Intense Emphasis to make

image really large

Add a caption

Group Stack card added

Group Type Options



• Click on the Add content area and the suggestions menu opens. Here you can click

on images you want to use. A tick will appear in the corner of each image you select.

• You can use your own images by clicking on the Chevron next to

Suggested and browsing your own drive.

• Click the Add button at the top. Your pictures will be inserted.

• You will now have a group stack of images.

• Click the Design to see what the stack

will look like.

• The Photos will be stacked one on top

of the other and when you click them

the photos will move through the

stack.

• Return to the Storyline

• Close the stack of image cards by clicking on the Chevron in the stack title.

Four Photos grouped in a Stack Preview view of Stack. Click to Enlarge Stack.

Change group type

Change Emphasis



• Here you can change the group type as well as the size or emphasis of the

pictures. Subtle, Moderate, Intense.

• You can also ungroup them or delete them.

• Press the plus symbol to add more images

• Select another group and check the results in the Design Tab.

• You can reduce the group to a single card by Clicking on the Small chevron

next to the Group Stack at the top left. This closes the Stack.

• There are other options in the group menu such as change the size of images,

Ungroup them or Trash them.

Changing the Focus point of an image

The Focus point option allows you to change the area of the image that Sway focuses on.

• Click on the Focus Points button.

• The Focus Points Menu opens.

• You can choose to display the complete picture by

clicking in the Entire Image is important check box.

• Or Click anywhere on the picture that you want to focus on.

• A round green indicator will appear where you clicked.

• A thumbnail of the focused area will show below the picture.

• You can Click again to find another suitable point and Sway will focus on the picture

between the two selected points.

• You can also see a thumbnail of what the picture looks like on mobile phone.

Group type Menu



Theme Changes

If you want to change the style of your

Sway, switch to the design tab and then

click the Styles button at the top right.

This opens up a Styles pane that shows you a preview of the

various style combinations you can select. Styles in the same row

differ in small ways, like font and background, while styles in

different rows change more substantially, such as in layout and

structure.

Sway offers seven core styles that differ in the way content is laid

out, in the use of decorators, image caption treatment, and in the

use of colour and textures in the background. When you click on

one of the designs the whole of the Sway automatically is

reformatted to the theme of the chosen design.

Click the picture to set

Focus points

Thumbnail shows view of selected focus

points. Also shown is view on mobile phone Focus Point

Click the picture to set

Focus points

Thumbnail shows view of selected focus

points. Also shown is view on mobile phone



• The first row offers a unique style, which combines image filters, bold and

sophisticated title treatment and backgrounds, a framed image treatment, and is

left-aligned. With this style you could explore different image treatment that fit the

mood of your Sway.

• The second style offers a clean and elegant design, centre-aligned text and images,

and places images one below the other.

• The third style uses sophisticated title treatment and backgrounds, a framed image

treatment, and is left-aligned. In this style, images are positioned side by side, or one

under the other, depending

on available space.

• The fourth style offers a modern design perspective and offers left-aligned text.

Image layout is optimized to fit available space.

• The fifth style offers a bold design attitude, using a rich variety of background

textures, vivid decorators, and playful interplay between the content and the

background. Images are laid out in a non-formal manner, giving this style a more

personal feel.

• The Sixth style, optimized for photo album scenarios, offers a clean yet sophisticated

approach by focusing on user content first. It centre-aligns text and images, and

automatically arranges the images in the best possible grid layout.

• The seventh style offers an expressive perspective, using playful backgrounds, text

back-planes and decorators.

Style 1

Style 2

Style 3

Style 4

Style 5

Style 6

Style 7

Sway Styles



Customising designs

Sway does give a small degree of customisation to any design.

• Click on the Customise button at the top

of the Styles pane to open the Customise

menu.

In this menu there are tools available to change the colour pallet and the type of Font you

want in your Sway. You can’t change individual Fonts however; all the Fonts change to the

new one.

• A slider at the bottom allows you to change the

sizes of all the Fonts in the Sway (not individually)

• A second slider allows you to increase the

animation emphasis.

• These animations are applied to images allowing

them to Zoom or pan to give movement to your

Sway. Note though these animations only appear

when you use the Play button in Sway and do not

appear in the Design tab Preview.

Sliders to adjust animation emphasis and Font size.

In Sway, selecting a style also means changing whether the

text will be centre or left aligned, or whether the image

captions will be laid on the right, below, or over the images.



Sway Design

You can adjust the way your Sway is displayed in the Styles

Menu.

There are three choices: -

• The Sway Scrolls in the vertical direction from top to bottom.

• The Sway Scrolls in the horizontal direction from left to right.

• Each section of the Sway is displayed on the screen and then by Clicking the

next arrow buttons at the bottom, the next page appears. Similar to how a

PowerPoint display operates.

Remix

A quick way of changing your Sway is to press the Remix button at the top

right of the styles pane.

• The Remix option randomly changes the design and navigation

features to your Sway. Think of Remix as a dice that has infinite rather than just six

choices. You never know what you will end up with!

• Since Remix may change the appearance of your Sway, you may want first

to duplicate your Sway.

• If you do not care for the new style that Sway applies, you can click

the Undo button as shown immediately to undo the Remix and

revert.to your original Sway.

Alternatively, click the Remix button again to use another style. Play around until you

are happy!

http://www.indezine.com/products/sway/duplicating-a-sway.html



Play a Sway

What you have seen in the Preview window is not how the Sway will be seen by others.

• Press the Play button at the Top right and Sway will go into Play

mode. All the dynamic animations that are built in to the

chosen design template will operate with your graphic images

zooming and appearing.

• To return to the Storyline screen where you can edit your

Sway, Click on the Edit option (Pencil) at the top right of the

screen.

Duplicate a Sway

Sometimes you may need to duplicate your Sway so that you can add new content or

change the appearance. As there is no save function in Sway as soon as you make a change

that’s it, the change is automatically saved and the only way to return to the original is to

use the undo button.

• Click on the Discover more available options button (three

horizontal dots) in the menu at the top right of the screen.

• From the Menu Click on the Duplicate this Sway option.

• You will be notified that a duplicate of your Sway will be made. And

you can give it a name if you like.

• You can change the name later.

• Press the Duplicate button Sway will duplicate your presentation.

• You will then be offered the choice off Going to My Sways (The

filing system where your Sway presentations can be accessed.) Or

you can choose to Edit your Sway.



Sharing

Once you have completed your Sway you can Share it with others using the Sharing Menu.

• Click on the Share button in the menu at the top right.

• In the Share menu you can choose to invite people to

view or edit by clicking the radio buttons.

• Its more normal to only allow people to view

your Sway.

• You can choose select the copy link option or

the get visual link. The visual link produces the

nicer option.

• Once you have copied your link then you can

paste it to an email or other document.

• You can also add it to a website or webpage such

as a newsletter.

• The recipient can view the Sway by clicking on

the link.

• In this menu you can also post to Facebook or

Twitter



How to get to your Sways

Your Sways are stored in Microsoft’s servers but they are all available for viewing via the

Sway button.

• Press the green Sway button at the top left of the screen.

• You will be taken to the Sway welcome screen. This is the

first screen you went to where the Sway templates are

featured.

• Here you will see all the Sways you have created.

To Delete a Sway

• To Delete a Sway Click on the menu in the Top right

of the Sway Thumbnail.

• Click the trash can

• The Sway will be deleted.

• In this menu you can also Play the Sway

• Create a link

• Make a copy of the Sway.

Other Options

Sway allows you to create a presentation directly from Word or PowerPoint.

• In the Welcome Screen Click on Start from a document.

• File explorer will open and browse to the document in you file

structure and Click open.

• Sway will produce a presentation based on your document. This is not always too

successful so it may pay you to start from scratch and copy and paste the relevant

content from your document into Sway.



Tutorials

There a many tutorials available on how to use Sway.

• On the Welcome screen click on the Tutorials button at the top

right.

• You will be taken to YouTube where you can view the range of

Tutorials on how to use Sway.

Size Limits

Although Sway is free to use there are limits on the amount of content you get for free. The

table below shows the limits of the free version compared to the Office 365 version. You are

allowed to have 150 images and 150 Paragraphs. However, the total items you are allowed

is 200 which includes all the items that make up your Sway such as Headings, Paragraphs,

Images, Videos etc.

When you reach the limit a warning ribbon appears above your Sway telling you that you

have gone over the limit. You will then need to cut out some of the content to reduce

the limit.

There are also limits to the size of the files you can upload from your own local drive or one

drive which are detailed in the second table below.

Info 1 The paragraph limit counts every new line in each Text card, Title card, Heading

card, or captions in other cards. It doesn't count as a new one when the text wraps

to a newline, but if you press Enter to manually get a newline then that counts as

a new paragraph. Bullets and numbering also each count as a new paragraph.

To reduce the count, you can delete some of the Enter points you added.



Although these sizes may seem at first restrictive the Sways you make in the free version

can be quite large and more than adequate for the casual user. If you want a bigger Sway,

then you can link one Sway to another from within a Sway using the embed card.

Table showing limits of Free version

to Office 365 Version



Sway is a fantastic free App from Microsoft we Hope you enjoy Swaying

Extra Tips

Duplicating Cards

You can copy an existing card and paste it in any Sway to duplicate the text, images, media or styles that it contains.

• Click on the bottom right of any card and put a tick in the Check box.

• Press Ctrl C to copy the card

• Select the area where you want the copy of the card to go and press Ctrl V.

• The card will be duplicated

• You put a check mark in as many cards as you like and copy them just the same.

• You can also copy between Sways.

Scrolling Text over an image

A great feature of Sway is that you can make text scroll over a fixed image. To do this you must have an image card followed by a text card with a large amount of text on it. The image must be set to Intense Emphasis. (largest size)

• Insert an image card and set the image emphasis to Intense.

Table showing Maximum size limit

of Files used in a Sway



• Add a text card below the image card.

• In the Styles menu make sure the Layout is set to Vertical.

• Note that you must also be in Play mode as you will not see it in the preview.

Pinning an image to the side of a long text paragraph.

You can set Sway up so that when you scroll through a long section of text The image related to that Text will be pinned alongside the text.

Image card followed by

a Text Card

Emphasis set to

Intense

The Picture fills the screen and the

text scrolls over the picture.

Image card followed by

a Text Card



You will require a long section of text and you will need to place the image below the text. With the emphasis set to small. The image should be grouped with the text

• Insert a long section of text into a text card

• Below the Text card place an image card.

• Set the emphasis of the image card to small.

• Click in the checkbox to the bottom right of the Image Card

• Do the same with the Text card.

• You will be informed that you have 2 selected

• Click in the Text card and in the in the top menu select Group.

• In the Group type menu use the default Automatic option

• In the Styles menu make sure the Layout is set to

Vertical.

• Note that you must also be in Play mode as you will not see

it in the Design mode.

Image and Text tick

boxes checked

Image and Text tick

boxes checked

2 Selected

Press to Group

Long section of Text

with Image card below



The Text Card and the Image

Card are grouped

With the image grouped and with sufficiently long text the image

will remain pinned to the text as you scroll down.

Use the default Automatic

setting

Image remains pinned as text

is scrolled



Editing in Design Mode

This can be very useful as it allows you to see

instantly what the edited text or image looks like.

• While in Design mode.

• Click on the any Text or Image and an Edit

menu becomes available

• With Text you can Edit the text to make

changes or you can Emphasise the text to make it bolder. You can also Delete the

Text.

• Click on an Image and you get slightly different

editing options

• Here you can Change the Focus Point, Emphasise

the image to three different sizes. Or Delete the

image.

Allow the recipient viewer to make Changes to the Sway

You may wish to allow someone who you have shared a

Sway with to make changes.

You do this when you Click on the Share button.

At the top of the Share Menu are radio buttons that give

you the option to invite people to View or Edit your Sway.

• Click on the Edit Radio button if you want to allow

someone to Edit your Sway.

Adding an embedded Map to a Sway

When you embed a map in a Sway it becomes a live link to the map. This allows you to

move inside the map and zoom in and out.



To obtain the Link that you need to embed, go to Google

Maps.

• Search Google Maps for the required address.

• Click on the Hamburger Menu to the left of the

search box to open the menu.

• Select the Share or embed Map option.

• Click on the Embed map tab. The link is created

Do not use the Shared link as it won’t work.

• Press Ctrl and C to copy the link to the clipboard.

• Return to your Sway and insert an Embed card

where you would like your map to be in your Sway by

Clicking the green Plus button.

• From the card menu select the Media option.

• Select the Embed Card.

• Place the cursor in the area where it says “Tap here and

paste your embed code”

• Press Ctrl and V to paste the embedded map code.

• The Map will appear in your Sway and can be moved and zoomed.

• You can change the map size with the emphasis buttons.



Export your Sway

• Click on the more options menu at the top right.

• Select Export

• You are given two options Word or PFD.

• Choose your option and the Sway will be

converted to a Word or PDF document.

• You can Print a Sway by Clicking the Print

Option which converts the Sway to a PDF

Format ready for printing.

Navigation in Sway

You can easily Navigate to different Sections of a sway using the Navigation

Menu at the bottom right of both the Design page and the Play Page.

Change the settings when the Sway is in Play mode.

The viewer of any Sway is able to change the way the Sway Plays

• Move the mouse to the top right corner of the Sway and

Click on the Settings Icon.

• In the Settings Menu the Sway can be changed to Scroll

Down, Scroll Horizontal or Move one screen at a time.

• The Animations can also be switched off.

The Viewer can also Share a link to the Sway

• Click the Share button and chose to get a visual Link.



• Press the Copy button

• Paste the Link into an email

More Options Menu

• In this Menu the viewer can Export the Sway

or Print it.

Audio Recording

You can record your voice directly within the app. This makes Sways more engaging as well

as interactive.

• Insert an Audio card in your Sway by Clicking the green

Plus button.

• From the card menu select the Media option.

• Select the Audio Card.

• Click on the Record symbol

• You will be greeted by Get Ready and a Countdown.

Record your Narration and then press the Stop or

pause button.



• Select the Play button to hear your recording.

• Re- Record or Add to Sway

View Count • You can see who has viewed your Sway by going to the My Sway’s page.

• The number of views recorded for your Sway are shown in the bottom right of

each thumbnail.

• Click on the 3 dots at the top right to open a

menu.

• Here you can Play your Sway, share a link, make a

copy of your Sway, or Delete it.

Notes - SeniorNet · Senior Net Warkworth Microsoft Sway Notes 5 SeniorNet Warkworth Microsoft Sway Symposium Notes May 2018 Author Brian Oakes • The centre section of the screen

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